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thp: seaech after sir joh^^ franklin and 
his companions, 



E. K. KANE, M. D., 

PAST ASSISTANT SURGEON IN THE K. S. NAVY 



RKAI) HKFOeE THE AMERICAN GEOGRAPHICAL AND STATISTICAL SOCIETY 
AT ITS REGULAR MONTHLY MEETING, DEC. H, 1852. 



[Keiiriiilril IVimi Ih.^ Socnnd Uulletin of tile Society] 



NEW YORK: 
HAKER, GODWIN & CO., PRINTERS, 

CORNER NASSAU AND SPRUCE STREETS. 

■ 1853. 



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gmcruan ic0pap^itiil an^ ^talistual Sacicls. 



ACCESS 



OPEN POLAR SEA 



IN CONNECTION WITH 



THE SEAECH AFTEE SIE JOHJf FEANKLLST AND 
HIS COMPANIONS, 



E. K. KANE, M. D., 

PAST ASSISTANT SUBOEON IN TUE U. S. NAVY. 



READ BEFORE THE AMERICAN GEOGRAPHICAL AND STATISTICAL SOCIETr 
AT ITS REGULAR MONTHLY MEETING, DEC. 14, 1852. 



[Reprinted from the Second Bulletin of the Society.] 




NEW YOEK: 
BAKER, GODWIN & CO., PRINTERS, 

CORNER NASSAU AND SPRUCE STREETS. 

1853. 



THE OPEN POLAR SEA. 



The north pole, the remote northern extremity of our 
earth's axis of rotation, is regarded, even by geogra- 
phers, with that mysterious awe which envelops the 
inaccessible and unknown. 

It is shut out from us by an investing zone of ice ; and 
this barrier is so permanent, that' successive explorers 
have traced its outline, like that of an ordinary seacoast. 

The early settlements of Iceland, and their extension 
to Greenland, as far back as 900 A. D., indicated a pro- 
truding tongue of ice from the unknown north, along 
the coast of Greenland. I must express a doubt if the 
early voyages of Cabot and Frobisher and the Corte- 
reals did more than establish detached points of this 
line of ice. The voyages, however, of the Basque and 
Biscay an fishermen, about 1575, to Cape Breton, made 
us aware of a similar ice raft along the coasts of Labra- 
dor to the north ; and the commercial routes of the old 
Muscovy company aided by the Dutch and English whal- 
ers, extended this across to Spitzbergen, and thence to 
the regions north of Archangel in the Arctic seas. The 
English navigators of the days of Elizabeth, the " notable 



worthys of tlie Nortlie Weste Passage," spoke of a sim- 
ilar ice-raft up Baffin's and Hudson's Bays, and the Russo- 
Siberians gave us vaguely a girding line of ice ; which pro- 
truded irregularly from the Asiatic and European coasts 
into the Polar Ocean. Lastly, Cook proved that the same 
barrier continued across Behring's Straits as high as Y0° 
44' north. 

From all this it appeared that the approaches to 
the pole were barricaded with solid ice. We owe to the 
march of modern discovery, especially stimulated by the 
search after its great pioneer. Sir John Franklin, our 
ability accurately to define nearly all the coasts of a 
great polar sea, if not to lay down the no less interesting 
coast of a grand continuous ice-border, that encircles it. 

I have prepared for the inspection of the Society, a 
diagram or chart, which will show the completeness with 
which these may now be delineated. 

It is worthy of remark, that this ice, although influ- 
enced by winds, currents, and deflecting land masses, 
retains through the corresponding period of each succes- 
sive year, a strikingly uniform outline. 

During the winter and spring, from October to May, 
or eight months of the year, it may be found traveling 
down the coast of Labrador almost to Newfoundland, 
blockading the approaches into Hudson's "Bay, and 
cementing into one great mass the numberless outlets 
which extend from it and Baffin's Bay to the unknown 
coasts of the north. 

Influenced by the earth's rotation, this ice accumulates 
towards the westward, leaving an uncertain passage 
along the eastern waters of Baffin's Bay ; after which it 
resumes its march along the eastern coast of Greenland, 
shutting in that extensive region appropriated to the 



interesting legend, or that meteorological myth, as it 
has been designated by Humboldt, of " Lost Greenland." 
Its next course is to the northeast, sometimes envelop- 
ing Iceland ; and thence, extending to the east by Jan 
Meyen's Land and Spitzbergen, it crosses the meridian 
of Greenwich at some point between the latitudes of V0° 
and 73°. 

I now call your attention to a remarkable feature in 
this great ice coast-line. Upon reaching a longitude of 
about 70° east, it suddenly turns towards the north, 
forming a marked indentation as high as latitude 80° ; 
then cominof ag-ain to the south east until it reaches 
Cherie Island, it continues on with a varying line to the 
unexplored regions north of Nova Zembla. 

This indentation or sinuosity, best known as the old 
" Fishing Bight " of the Greenland seas, is undoubtedly 
due to the thermal influences of the Gulf Stream. We 
know that the coasts of Nova Zembla feel the influences 
of its waters ; and Petermann and many others, guided 
by the projected curves of Dove, suppose that its heated 
current is deflected by that peninsula, so as to impress 
the polar ice to a greater degree of northing than on 
any other part of our globe. 

It would be important to the objects of my communi- 
cation, that I should trace this ice throughout its entire 
extent ; but I have not the means of doing so with ex- 
actness. Barentz, in 1596, was arrested by ice in latitude 
77" 25' upon the meridian of 70° east. Pront-schitscheff 
met the same rebuff at the same height, thirty degrees 
further west (100° east.) Anjou, Matieuschin, and 
Wrangell found it in a varying belt along the Asiatic 
coast, at farthest but fifty miles in width. 

The enterprise of our American whalers has also 



6 

traced this ice across Beliring's Straits, as higli as lati- 
tude Y2° 40' ; and it is probable that Herald Island, 
in latitude Tl" 1*7', is a part of a great island chain, con- 
tinued from Cape Yacan to Banks' Land and the Parry 
Islands; an archipelago, whose northern faces are yet 
unexplored, but which undoubtedly serves as a cluster 
of points of ice cementation, and abounds more or less 
with polar icfe at all seasons of the year. 

We have now followed, throughout its entire circuit, 
this immense investing body. The circumpolar ice, as 
I will venture to name it, may be said to bound an im- 
perfect circle of 6,000 miles in circumference with a rude 
diameter of 2,000 miles, and an area, if we admit its con- 
tinuity to the pole, one-third larger than the continent 
of Europe. 

But theory has determined that this great surface is 
not continuous. It is an annulus, a ring surrounding an 
area of open water, — the Polynya, or Iceless Sea. 

Polynya is a Russian word, signifying an open space ; 
and it is used by the Siberians to indicate the occasional 
vacancies which occur in a frozen water-surface. Al- 
though such a vacancy as applied to a polar sea is gene- 
rally recognized to exist, it is right for me to state that 
this opinion is not based upon the results of exploration. 
It is due rather to the well elaborated inductions of Sa- 
bine and Berghaus and, especially, of our accomplished 
American hydrographer. Lieutenant Maury. The ob- 
servations of Wrangell and Penny, and still more lately 
of Captain Inglefield, although strongly confirmatory, 
were limited to a range of vision in no instance exceed- 
ing fifty miles, and were subject to all the deceptions of 
distance. As, however, the arguments in favor of the 
existence of such a sea are of the highest interest to 



future geographical research, and so far as I am aware 
have never yet been grouped together, I shall take the 
liberty of presenting them to the Society. 

The North Polar Ocean is a great mediterranean, 
draining the northern slopes of three continents, and 
receiving the waters of an area of 3,Y51,2'70 square miles. 
Indeed, the river systems of the Arctic Sea exceed those 
of the Atlantic. 

1 he influences of congelation too, aided by the dimin- 
ished intensity and the withdrawal of the solar ray, 
increase the atmospheric precipitation, and probably 
diminish the compensating evaporation. Yet this posi- 
tion calls for further investigation to establish it abso- 
lutely ; for recent experiments show, that even in the dark 
hours of winter, and at temperatures of fifty degrees 
below zero, evaporation goes on at a rapid rate ; that it 
holds, however, in general terms, is evident from the 
inferior specific gravity of the Arctic waters. They are 
less salt than those of more equatorial regions. Their 
average specific gravity (1.0265) indicates about 3.60 
per cent, of saline matter. 

The atmospheric precipitation extending to the adja- 
cent land slopes, the melting of the snows and accumu- 
lated glacial material, and the floods of the great Siberian 
rivers, are sufficient to account for this. 

With such sources of supply, it is evident that this 
surcharged basin must have an outlet, and its contents a 
movement independent of the laws of currents generally 
operative, which would determine them toward the 
Equator. 

The avenues of entrance to and egress from the polar 
basin, are but three ; Behring^s Straits, the estuaries of 
Hudson's and Baffin's Bays, and the interval between 



Greenland and Norway, upon tlie Atlantic Ocean, known 
as the Greenland Sea. In Behring's Straits, it is proba- 
ble, from imperfect observations, that the surface current 
sets during a large portion of the year from the Pacific 
into the Arctic Sea, with a velocity varying from one to 
two and a half knots an hour. Neither the soundings 
nor the diameter of tliis Strait indicate any very large 
deep-sea discharge in the other direction. 

The Gulf Stream, after dividing the Labrador current, 
has been traced by Professor Dove to the upper regions 
of Novaia Zemlia ; so that Baffin's Bay and the Hudson 
and Greenland seas, constitute the only uniform outlet 
to the polar basin. 

It is by these avenues, then, that the enormous masses 
of floating ice, with the deeply immersed berg, and the 
still deeper belt of colder water, are conveyed outward. 
Underlying the Gulf Stream, whose waters it is estima- 
ted at least to equal in volume, the vast submerged icy 
river flows southward to the regions of the Carribean. 
The recent labors of the IT. States Coast Survey and 
Nautical Observatory have, as the Society is aware, de- 
veloped and confirmed the previously broached idea of 
a compensating system of polar and tropical currents ; 
and we are prepared to consider these colder streams, as 
equalizers to the heated areas of the tropical latitudes, 
and analogous ij^ cause and effect to the recognized course 
of the atmospheric currents. 

In fact. Dove, Berghaus, and Petermann, three autho- 
rities entitled to the highest respect, recognize for the 
Arctic Ocean a system of revolving currents, whose 
direction during summer is from north to south, and 
during winter the reverse, or from the south to the 
north. The isotherms of Lieut. Maury (projected by 



Prof. Flye) point clearly to the same interesting result. 
Contrasting these great movements of discharge and sup- 
ply with the surface actions, we find during the summer 
months, a movement along the northern coasts of Russia, 
clearly from east to west, from Novaia Zemlia west- 
wardly and south-westwardly to Spitzbergen, where, 
after an obscure bifurcation, it is met by a great drift from 
the north, and carried along the coast of Greenland, in a 
large body known as the East Greenland current. The 
observations collected by Lieut. Commanding De Haven, 
show that this stream is deflected around Cape Farewell, 
passing up the Greenland coast to lat. Y4° 76' ; where^ 
after coming to the western side of the bay, it passes 
along the eastern coast of America, even to the capes 
of Florida. During the winter, when the great rivers of 
Siberia and America lose their volume by the action of 
the frost, a current has been noted from the Faroe Isl- 
ands, north and east, along the Asiatic coast, towards 
Behring's Straits. And then it is, that the great surface 
ice, formed upon the coasts of Asia, gives place to a 
w^armer stream, and the heated waters of the Gulf Cur- 
rent bathe and temper the line of the Siberian coast. 

All these facts go to prove that the polar basin is not 
only the seat of an active supply and discharge, but of an 
intestine circulation independent of either; while the 
inter-communication of the whales (^B. Mysticetus\ be- 
tween the Atlantic and Pacific, as shown by Maury, 
proves directly that the two oceans are united. 

Admitting the important fact of a moving, open sea, 
the recognized equalization of temperatures attending 
upon large water masses, follows of course. But, is the 
Arctic Sea, in fact, an unvaried expanse of water ? For, 
if it be not, the excessive radiation and other disturbing 



10 

influences of land upon general temperature, are well 
known. It is, I think, an open sea. And an argument may 
be deduced for this belief from tke icebergs. The iceberg 
is an offcast from the polar glacier, and needs land as an 
essential element in its production — as much so as a ship 
the dockyard on which she is built, and from which 
she is launched. From the excessive submergencie of 
these great detached masses, they may be taken as re" 
liable indices of the deep-sea currents, while their size is 
such that they often reach the latitudes of the temper- 
ate zone before their dissolution. Now, it is a remark- 
able fact, that these huge ice-hulks are confined to the 
Greenland, Spitzbergen, and Baffin seas. Throughout 
the entire circuit of the Polar Ocean, almost seven thou- 
sand miles of circumscribing coast, we have but forty 
degrees which is ever seen to abound in them. 

A second argument, bearing upon this, is found in 
the fact, that a large area of open water exists, between 
the months of June and October, in the upper parts of 
Baffin's Bay. This mediterranean Polynya is called by 
the whalers, the North Water. After working through 
the clogging ice of the intermediate drift, you pass sud- 
denly into an open sea, washing the most northern 
known shores of our continent, and covering an area of 
90,000 square miles. ^ 

The iceless interval is evidently caused by the drift 
having traveled to the south without being reinforced 
by fresh supplies of ice; and the latest explorations 
from the upper waters of this bay speak of avenues 
thirty-six miles wide extending to the north and east, 
and free. 

The temperature of this water is sometimes 12° above 
the freezing point ; and the open bays or sinuosities, 
which often indent the Spitzbergen ice as high as 81° 



11 

N. lat. have been observed to give a sea-water temper- 
ature as high as 38° and 40", while the atmosphere indi- 
cates but 16° above zero. 

But besides these, we have arguments growing out of 
the received theories of the distribution of temperature 
upon the surface of the earth. 

The actual distribution of heat in this shut-out region 
can only be inferred. 

The system of Isothermals, projected by Humboldt 
upon positive data, ceased at 32" ; and the views of Sir 
John Leslie (based upon Mayer's theorem), that the 
north pole was the coldest point in the Arctic regions, 
have, as the members are aware, since been disproved. 

Sir David Brewster, by a combination of the observa- 
tions of Scoresby, Gieseke, and Parry, determined the 
existence of two poles of cold, one for either hemisphere, 
and both holding a fixed relation to the magnetic poles. 
These two seats of maximum cold are situated respect- 
ively in Asia and America, in longitudes 100° west and 
95° east, and on tlte parallel of 80°. They differ about 
five degrees in their mean annual temperature ; the Am- 
erican, which is the lower, giving three degrees and a 
half below zero. The Isothermals surround these two 
points, in a system of returning curves, yet to be con- 
firmed by observation ; but the inference which I pre- 
sent to you without comment or opinion, is, that to the 
north of 80°, and at any points intermediate between 
these American and Siberian centers of intensity, the 
climate must be milder, or more properly speaking, the 
mean annual temperature must be more elevated. 

Petermann, taking as a basis the data of Professor 
Dove, deduces a movable pole of cold, which in January 
is found in a line from Melville Island to the River Lena, 



12 

and, gradually advancing with the season into the 
Atlantic Ocean, recedes with the fall and winter to its 
former position. Such a movement is clearly referable to. 
the summer land currents with their freight of polar ice. 

With the consolidation of winter, the ice recedes, and 
the Gulf Stream enters more perceptibly into the far 
north. The mean temperature of the northeast coast of 
Siberia is forty or fifty degrees colder than that of the 
western shores of Novaia Zemlia, while in July it is 
twenty degrees higher. 

But, if any point beteen 75° and 80° N. lat., a range 
sufficiently wide to include all the theories, be regarded 
as the seat of the greatest intensity of cold, we may per- 
haps infer the state of the Polar Sea from the known 
temperatures of other regions, equally distant with it 
from this supposed center ; though, as the lines of lati- 
tude do not correspond with those of temperature, this 
must be done with caution. 

I have been interested for some time in examining 
this class of deflections ; and I find that they point to 
some interesting conclusions as to the fluidity of the 
region about the pole, and its attendant mildness of 
weather. 

Thus, for instance, at Cherie Island, surrounded by 
moving waters, but in a higher latitude th|in Melville 
Island, the seat of the greatest observed mean annual 
cold, the temperature was found so mild throughout 
the entire Arctic winter, that rain fell there upon 
Christmas day. 

Barentz, a most honest and reliable authority, 
speaks of the increasing warmth as he left the land to 
the north of YT". The whalers north of Spitzbergen, 
confirm the saying of the early Dutch that the " Fisher- 
man's Bight " is as pleasant as the sea of Amsterdam. 



13 

Egedesrainde and Rittenback, two little Danish 
and Esquimaux settlements on tlie west coast of Green- 
land, in lat. 70°, witli a climate influenced by adjacent 
land masses, but, nevertheless, not completely ice-bound, 
have a mean annual temperature of , and are in the 
isothermal curve, (summer curve), of 50° ; giving us a 
vegetation of coarse grasses, and a few crucifers. 

In "West Lapland, as high as 70°, barley has been 
and I believe is still grown ; though here is its highest 
northern limit. If 80° be our center of maximum cold, 
the pole, at 90,° is — at the same distance from it as this 
West Lapland limit of the growth of barley! 

But there are other arguments based upon known 
facts, and facts popularly recognized, bearing upon the 
theory of an open sea : 

The iaiigrations of animal life. At the utmost 
limits of northern travel attained by man, hordes of 
animals of various kinds have been observed to be trav- 
eling: still further. 

The Arctic zone, though not rich in species, is teem- 
ing with individual life, and is the home of some of the 
most numerous families known to the naturalist. Amono- 
birds, the swimmers, drawing their subsistence from 
open water, arc predominant ; the great families of 
ducks, Awhs^ and procellarine birds {^Anatince^ Alcince, 
and Procellarinoi)^ throng the seas and passages of the 
far North, and even incubate in regions of unknown 
northernness. The eider duck has been traced to breed- 
ing grounds as high as 78° in Baffin's Bay, and in con- 
junction with the brent goose, seen by us in Wellington 
Channel, and the loon and little awk, pass in great 
flights to the northern waters beyond. The mammals of 
the sea — the huge cetacea, in the three great families, 



14 

Belinidce^ Delpliinidm^ and Phocidce^ represented by the 
whales; the narwhal and the seal, as well as that 
strange marine pachyderm, the tusky walrus, all pass in 
sohiols towards tha northern waters. I have seen the 
white whale {Delphinipterus JBeluga), passing up Wel- 
lington Channel to the north for nearly four successive 
days, and that, too, while all around ns was a sea of 
broken ice. 

So with the quadrupeds of this region. The equa- 
torial range of the polar bear ( IT. Maritimus)^ is mis- 
conceived by our geographical zoologists. It is further 
to the north than we have yet reached ; and this pow- 
erful beast informs us of the character of the accom- 
panying life, upon which he preys. 

The ruminating animals, whose food must be a 
vegetation, obey the same impulse or instinct of far 
northern travel. The reindeer {Cervus Terandus)^ 
although proved by my friend Lieut. McClintock to 
winter sometimes in the Parry group, outside of the 
zone of woods, comes down from the north in herds as 
startling as those described by the Siberian travelers, a 
" moving forest of antlers." 

The whalers of North Baffin's Bay, as high as 75°, 
shoot them in numbers, and the Esquimaux of Whale 
Sound, 77°, are clothed with their furs. Fiv^ thousand 
skins are sent to Denmark from Egedesminde and Hols- 
teinberg alone. 

Before passing from this branch of my subject, I must 
mention also that the polar drift-ice comes first from the 
north. The breaking up, the thaw of the ice-plain, 
does not commence in our so called warmer south, but 
in regions to the north of those yet attained. Wrangell 
speaks of this on the Asiatic seas, Parry above Spitzber- 



15 

gen ; and my friend Capt. Penny, slirewd, bold, and 
adventurous, confirms it in his experience of Welling- 
ton Sound. 

In addition to all tliis, we have the observations of 
actual travel ; although this, confirmatory as it is, must, 
like the theoretical views, be received with caution. 
Barentz saw an opening water beyond the northernmost 
point of Europe; Anjou the same beyond the Siberian 
Bear islands; and Wrangell, in a sledge journey from 
the mouth of the Kolyma, speaks of a " vast illimitable 
ocean," illimitable to mortal vision. 

To penetrate this icy annulus, to make the " north- 
west passage" the northeast passage, to reach the pole, 
have been favored dreams since the early days of ocean 
navigation. Yet up to this moment, complete failure 
has attended every attempt. One voyager, William 
Scoresby, known to the scientific world for the range 
and exactness of his observation, passed beyond the lati- 
tude of 81° 30'. But after discarding the apochryphal 
voyages of the early Dutch, whose imperfect nautical 
observation rendered entirely unreliable their assertions 
of latitudes, we have the names of but two who may be 
said to have attained the parallel of 82*^ ; Heindrich 
Hudson in 1607, and Edward Parry in our own times. 

This latter navigator felt that the sea, ice-clogged 
with its floating masses, was not the element for success- 
ful travel, and with a daring unequaled, I think, in the 
history of personal enterprise, determined to cross the 
ice upon sledges. The spot he selected was north of 
Sj^itzbergen, a group of rocks called the Seven Islands, 
the most northern known land upon our globe. With 
indomitable resolution he gained within 435 miles of his 
mysterious goal, and then, unable to stem the rapid 
drift to the southward, was forced to return. 



16 

But the question of access to the Arctic pole — the 
penetration to this open sea — is now brought again be- 
fore us, not as in the days of Hudson and Scoresby and 
Parry, a curious problem for scientific inquiry, but as an 
object claiming philanthropic effort, and appealing thus 
to the sympathies of the whole civilized world — the 
rescue of Sir John Franklin and his followers. 

The recent discoveries by the united squadrons of 
De Haven and Penny, of Franklin's first winter quarters 
at the mouth of Wellington Channel, aided by the com- 
plete proofs since obtained that he did not proceed to 
the east or west, render it beyond conjecture certain 
that he passed up Wellington Channel to the north. 

Here we have lost him ; and, save the lonely records 
upon the tomb-stones of his dead, for seven years he has 
been lost to the world. To assign his exact position is 
impossible: we only know that he has traveled up this 
land-locked channel, seeking the objects of his enterprise 
to the north and west. That some of his party are yet 
in existence, this is not the place to argue. Let the 
question rest upon the opinions of those who, having 
visited this region, are at least better qualified to judge 
of its resources than those who have formed their oj)in- 
ions by the fireside. 

The journeys of Penny, Goodsir, Manson, knd Suther- 
land, have shown this tract to be a tortuous estuary, a 
highway for the polar ice-drift, and interspersed with 
islands, as high as latitude 77°; beyond which they 
could not see. It is up this channel, that the searching 
squadron of Sir Edward Belcher has now disappeared, 
followed by the anxious wishes of those who look to it 
as the final hope of rescue. I regret to say, that after 
considering carefully the prospects of this squadron, I 



IT 

have to confess tliat I am far from sanguine as to its 
success. It must be remembered, tliat Wellington 
Channel is all that has just been stated, tortuous, stud- 
ded with islands, and a thoroughfare for the northern 
ice ; and the open water sighted by Captain Penny is 
not to be relied on, either as extending very far, or as 
more than temporarily unobstructed. If we look up 
from the highlands of Beechy Head, fifty miles of appa- 
rently open navigation is all that we can assert certainly 
to have been attained by the searching vessels, and to 
reach the present known limits of the sound would re- 
quire a progress in a direct line on their part of at least 
130 miles. 

They left, moreover, on the fifth of August ; and 
early as this is there considered, and open as was the 
season, they have but forty days before winter cements 
the sea, or renders navigation impossible by clogging the 
running gear. By a fortunate concurrence of circum- 
stances, the squadron of Sir Edward Belcher may do 
everything ; but I must repeat that I am far from 
sanguine as to their success. The chances are against 
their reaching the open sea. 

It is to announce, then, another plan of search that I 
am now before you ; and as the access to the open sea 
forms its characteristic feature, I have given you the 
preceding outline of the physical characteristics of the 
region, in order to enable you to weigh properly its 
merits and demerits. 

It is in recognition of the important office which 
American geographers may perform towards promoting 
its utility and success, that I have made the Society the 
first recipient of the details and outlines of my plan. 

Henry Grinnell, the first president and now a vice- 
2 



18 

president of tliis Society, lias done me tlie lionor of 
placing Ms vessel, the Advance, at my disposition ; and 
the Secretary of the Navy has assigned me to " special 
duty " for the conduct of the expedition. 

My plan of search is based upon the probajble exten- 
sion of the land masses of Greenland 'to the far north^ — a 
view yet to be verified by travel, but sustained by the 
analogies of physical geography. Greenland, though 
looked upon by Gieseke as a congeries of islands ce- 
mented by interior glaciers, is in fact a peninsula, and 
follows in its formation the general laws which have 
been recognized since the days of Forster, as belonging 
to peninsulas with a southern trend. Its abrupt, trun- 
cated termination at Staaten-Hopk is as marked as that 
which is found at the Capes Good Hope and Horn of 
the two great continents, the Comorin of Peninsular 
India, Cape South East of Australia, or the Gibraltar of 
southern Spain. 

Analogies of general contour, which also liken it to 
southern peninsulas, are even more striking. The island 
groups, for instance, seen to the east of these southern 
points, answering to the Falkland Islands, Madagascar, 
Ceylon, New Zealand, the Bahamas of Florida, and the 
Balearics of the coast of Spain, are represented by Ice- 
land off the coast of Greenland. It has becR observed 
that all great peninsulas, too, have an excavation or bend 
inwards on their Western side, a "concave inflection" 
towards the interior. Thus, South America between 
Lima and Valdavia, Africa in the Gulf of Guinea, India 
in Cambaye, and Australia in the Bay of Nuyts, are fol- 
lowed by Greenland in the great excavation of Disco. 
Analogies of the same sort may offer, when we consider 
those more important features of relief so popularly yet 
so profoundly treated by Prof. Guyot. 



19 

Greenland is lined by a couple of lateral ranges, 
metamorpliic in structure, and expanding in a double 
axis to the K N. W. and N. N. E. They present strik- 
ing resemblances to the Ghauts of India, being broken 
by the same great injections of greenstone, and walling 
in a plateau region where glacial accumulations corre- 
spond to those of the Hindostan plains. 

The culmination of these peaks in series, indicates 
strongly their extension to a region far to the north. 
Thus from the South Cape of Greenland to Disco Bay, 
in lat. 70°, the peaks vary in height from 800 to 3,200 
feet. Those of Proven, lat. 71°, are 2,300, and those 
observed by me in lat. 76° 10', gave sextant altitudes of 
1,380 feet, with interior summits at least one-third 
higher. 

The same continued elevation is observed by the 
whalers as high as 77°, and Scoresby noted nearly cor- 
responding elevations on the eastern coasts, in lat. 73°. 
The coast seen by Inglefield, to the north of 78°, was 
high and commanding. 

From these alternating altitudes, continued through- 
out a meridian line of nearly eleven hundred geograph- 
ical miles, I infer that this chain follows the nearly uni- 
versal law of a gradual subsidence, and that Greenland 
is continued farther to the north than any other known 
land. In the old continents the land slopes towards the 
Arctic Sea; but although in the new world the descent 
of the land generally is to the east, the law of the 
gradual decline of meridional chains is universal. 

Believing, then, in such an extension of Greenland, 
and feeling that the search for Sir John Franklin is best 
promoted by a course which will lead directly to the 
open sea, — feeling, too, that the approximation of the 



20 

meridians would make access to the west as easy from 
Northern Greenland as from Wellington Channel, and 
access to the east far more easy, — feeling, too, that the 
highest protruding headland will be most likely to 
afford some trace of the lost party, — I am led to propose 
and attempt this line of search. 

Admitting such an extension of the land masses of 
Greenland to the north, we have the following induce- 
ments for exploration and research. 

1. Terra firma as the basis of our operations, obviating 
the capricious character of ice travel. 

2. A due northern line, which, throwing aside the in- 
fluences of terrestial radiation, would lead soonest to the 
open sea, should such exist. 

3. The benefit of the fan-like abutment of land, on the 
north face of Greenland, to check the ice in the course of 
its southern or equatorial drift, thus obviating the great 
draw-back of Parry in his attempts to reach the pole by 
the Spitzbergen Sea. 

4. Animal life to sustain traveling parties. 

5. The co-operation of the Esquimaux, &c. ; settlements 
of these people having been found as high as Whale 
Sound, and probably extending still further along the 
coast. 

The point I would endeavor to attain woi^d be the 
highest attainable seats of Baffin's Bay, from the sound 
known as Smith's Sound, and advocated by Baron 
Wrangell as the most eligible site for reaching the 
north pole. 

As a point of departure it is two hundred and twenty 
miles to the north of Beechy Island, the starting point 
of Sir Edward Belcher, and seventy miles north of the 
utmost limits seen or recorded in Wellington Channel. 



21 

The party should consist of some thirty men, with a 
couple of launches, sledges, dogs, and gutta percha boats. 
The provisions to be pemmican, a preparation of dried 
meat, packed in cases impregnable to the assaults of the 
polar bear. 

We shall leave the United States in time to reach the 
Bay at the earliest season of navigation. The brig fur- 
nished by Mr. Grinnell for this purpose, is admirably 
strengthened and fully equipped to meet the peculiar 
trials of the service. After reaching the settlement of 
Uppernavik, we take in a supply of Esquimaux dogs, and 
a few picked men to take charge of the sledges. 

We then enter the ice of Melville Bay, and, if success- 
ful in penetrating it, hasten to Smith's Sound, forcing our 
vessel to the utmost navigable point, and there securing 
her for the winter. The operations of search, however, 
are not to be suspended. Active exercise is the best 
safeguard against the scurvy ; and although the dark- 
ness of winter will not be in our favor, I am convinced 
that, with the exception, perhaps, of the solistitial period 
of maximum obscurity, we can push forward our provi- 
sion depots, by sledge and launch, and thus prepare for 
the final efforts of our search. 

In this I am strengthened by the valuable opinion of 
my friend, Mr. Murdaugh, late the sailing master of the 
Advance. He has advocated this very Sound as a basis 
of land operations. And the recent journey of Mr. 
William Kennedy, commanding Lady Franklin's last 
expedition, shows that the fall and winter should no 
longer be regarded as lost months. 

The sledges, which constitute so important a feature of 
our expedition, and upon which not only our success but 
our safety will depend, are to be constructed with ex- 



22 

treme care. Eacli sledge will carry tlie blanket, bags, 
and furs of six men, together with a measured allowance 
of pemmican; a light tent of india-rubber cloth, of a 
new pattern, will be added ; but for our nightly halt 
the main dependence will be the snow house of the Es- 
quimaux. It is almost incredible, in the face of what 
obstacles, to what extent, a well organized sledge par- 
ty can advance. The relative importance of every 
ounce of weight can be calculated, and the system of 
advanced depots of provisions organized admirably. 

Alcohol or tallow is the only fuel; and the entire 
cooking apparatus, which is more for thawing the snow 
for tea-water than for heating food, can be carried in a 
little bag. Lieut. Mc Clintock, of Commander Austin's 
expedition, traveled thus 800 miles — the collective 
journeys of the expedition equaled several thousand ; 
and Baron Wrangell made by dogs 1,533 miles in seven- 
ty-four days, and this over a fast frozen ocean. 

But the greatest sledge journey upon record is that 
of my friend, Mr. Kennedy, who accomplished nearly 
1,400 miles, most of it in mid-winter, without returning 
upon his track to avail himself of deposited provisions. 
His only food — and we may here learn the practical 
lesson of the traveler, to avoid unnecessary baggage — 
was pemmican, and his only shelter the snowJiouse. 

It is my intention to cover each sledge with a gutta 
percha boat — a contrivance which the experience of the 
English has shown to be perfectly portable. Thus 
equipped, we follow the trend of the coast, seeking the 
(ypeii water. 

Once there, if such a reward awaits us, we launch our 
little boats, and, bidding God speed us, embark upon its 
waters. 



23 

Gentlejien of the Society — if I may be permitted 
particularly to address you — the resources of tliose 
whose philanthropy has fitted out this expedition, must 
be scrupulously appropriated to the single object of 
search. But this search is not merely a voyage of 
rescue ; it appeals to the highest interests of scientific 
inquiry ; but to physical geography especially. 

A simple inspection of the proposed line of travel 
■will show its peculiar availability for purposes of phys- 
ical research. 

In thermal science, it will connect and continue in 
series the observations instituted by the Danish Govern- 
ment on the lower coast of Greenland. Thus affording 
new and valuable data for the extension of the positive 
Isothermals, and the determination of the distribution 
of heat upon the surface of the globe. 

In terrestrial magnetism, perhaps no spot could be 
found where an accurate registration would be more 
valuable. It is intermediate between the Asiatic and 
American Magnetic Poles, and on a meridian line bear- 
ing a uniform' relation to each. The elements most 
wanting in the Gaussian formula might here be contri- 
buted largely, and additional light be thrown upon the 
great questions of the amount and direction of the 
earth's mao-netic force. 

So important are these objects, that Prof. Henry, 
with that liberal view of the objects of the Smithsonian 
Institution which has made it to be already recognized 
as fulfilling the just intentions of its founder, "the diffu- 
sion of knowledge among men," has volunteered, upon 
the contingency of future payment, to order the neces- 
sary instruments ; and the Honorable John P. Kennedy, 
the Secretary of the Navy, himself a votary of science, 



24 

and possessing the rare abilities of reconciling its higli 
interests with the duties of official station, has com- 
mended an organization of this l3ranch of my approach- 
ing duties to the attention of Congress. 

Such an organization it would be my pride to mature, 
and my labor to render effective. I ask from you such 
a co-operation as is due to the character of your learned 
body, and the importance of the interests which it has 
assumed to take under its charge. 
















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